North Shore Death Notices: March 14 To March 20

The following death notices were added to funeral homes serving the North Shore area in the past week. Those homes have provided obituaries for some of those that have passed away recently. Patch offers condolences to their loved ones, links to their obituaries and notices of upcoming services below.

Kelley & Spalding Funeral Home, 1787 Deerfield Road in Highland Park

Emily Paige Salinas, 27, Gurnee

Seguin & Symonds Funeral Home, 858 Sheridan Road in Highwood and 11 West Belvidere Road in Grayslake

Darlene Jean Biggs, 78, Grayslake
Visitation March 22, service March 23

John S. "Jack" Ingersoll, 93, Lake Forest
Service March 26

Joseph Anthony Cervac, 64, Highwood
Service April 1

Reuland & Turnbough Funeral Home, 1407 N. Western Ave. in Lake Forest

Edwin E. Sublett, 79, Lake Forest

Wenban Funeral Home, 320 Vine Ave. in Lake Forest

Kathleen Elizabeth “Kathy” Putnam, 79, Lombard
Service March 26

Eric R. Wiggins, 46, Hickory, North Carolina

Chicago Jewish Funerals, 8851 Skokie Blvd. in Skokie and 195 N. Buffalo Grove Road in Buffalo Grove

Devorah Peltz née Cohen, 98, Chicago
Service March 22

Melvin Macoff, 85, Niles

Irving H. Abarbanell, 84, Chicago

Zinaida Batko, 84, Skokie

Joseph L. Fieger, 84, Des Plaines

Paul Bauman, 81, Buffalo Grove

David F. Israel, 75, Highland Park

Michael Finnegan, 59, Evanston

Donnellan Funeral Home, 10045 Skokie Blvd. in Skokie

Josephine Murphy Vorda, 86, Evanston

Haben Funeral Home, 8057 Niles Center Road in Skokie

Geraldine H. Haver née Barrett, 89, of Belleair, Florida
Service March 22

Kenneth J. Liljeberg, 74, Morton Grove
Service March 23

Mark J. Mitchell, 47, Glenview
Service March 23

Henry E. Theiner, 94, Skokie

Thomas M. Hathaway, 82, Evanston

Glenn Smith, 75, Saint Charles

Antonio P. Montoya, 72, Chicago

Thompson Funeral and Cremation, 1917 Asbury Ave., in Evanston

Irine Marie Hall, 46, Streamwood

N. H. Scott & Hanekamp Funeral Home, 1240 Waukegan Road in Glenview

Kathryne Cotromanes née Patrakis, 74, Gleniew
Service March 22

Jean Dressel Flory, 93, Glenview
Service March 26

Marian M. Barkley, 89, Glenview

Weinstein & Piser Funeral Home, 111 Skokie Blvd. in Wilmette

Charlotte Swarzman née Sachs, 102, Wilmette

Eleanora Dudakova, 91, Prairie View

Nina Rabinsky, 89, Chicago

Ronald Eisen, 86, Chicago

Olga Volfson, 86, Moline

Katerina "Katie" Engel Altenberg, 85, Evanston

Morton Ohnstein, 84, Glenview

Barbara Susan Repkin, 80, Glenview

Featured Obituary:

Katerina (Katie) Engel Altenberg passed away peacefully on March 15, 2022 at age 85 after a short battle with leukemia. She is survived by her children Karen Libman and Steven Altenberg, her son-in-law Bob Libman, and her three grandchildren, Henry, Gracie, and Emily Libman.

Katie was born on October 13, 1936 in Vienna, Austria to Ludvig and Greta Engel. She had a younger brother, Adolph. She spent her early years on on estate called Edmunshof in the state of Burgenland near the Hungarian border, where her father, an agronomist, had built a general farm. Katie’s family survived expulsion from their home, arrests, separations from one another, ghettos, and detention and concentration camps during the Holocaust. In 1948, at age 12, Katie and her family immigrated to the United States and settled in New Berlin, New York, where her father purchased a chicken farm.

Katie had a curious mind and sharp intellect. She was valedictorian of her high school graduating class and attended Syracuse University, where she graduated with a degree in Zoology and a teaching certificate. After moving to New York City, she worked as a research assistant in the laboratory of Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, who would go on to win a Nobel prize after completing the first ever bone marrow transplant.

In 1960, while in California, Katie met Henry Altenberg, also a child survivor of the Holocaust, whose parents had sent him and his sister to England from Berlin, Germany before World War II began. Henry, an Air Force captain, and Katie were married shortly before Henry was assigned to an American military base in Japan, where their two children, Karen and Steven, were born.

In 1967, after suffering a heart attack, Henry was honorably discharged from the military and Katie’s family settled in Silver Spring, Maryland. Katie started her own custom floral design business and Henry worked as a management analyst for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. After Henry passed away in 1983 from heart failure, Katie found community in a child survivors of the Holocaust group and volunteered at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

In 2013, Katie relocated to Evanston, Illinois, to be closer to her daughter, son-in-law, and three grandchildren who live in Highland Park. She made close friendships in her residence at the Mather, became an avid painter, poet, and swimmer, and enjoyed traveling around the world. She continued her support for Jewish organizations, including the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, the American Society for Technion - Illinois Institute of Technology, and Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America.

Send obituaries and images to your Patch to be included in future editions: Deerfield, Evanston, Glenview, Highland Park, Lake Bluff-Lake Forest, Niles-Morton Grove, Northbrook, Skokie, Winnetka-Glencoe-Northbrook, Wilmette-Kenilworth

Last week: North Shore Death Notices: March 7 To March 13